EMPLOYMENT Minister Priti Patel is set to make jobs and growth a key referendum battleground as she argues the economy would be stronger outside the European Union.

Employment Minister Priti Patel has argued the economy would be stronger with a Brexit

The former Treasury minister claims Britain’s membership is stopping highly-skilled workers from outside Europe coming to take up the jobs that will help grow the economy.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express, Miss Patel said: “We cannot control the flow of people coming in from the EU because of free movement, which means we are actually stopping highly-skilled people from other countries and other economies outside Europe coming to work in many of the higher-value jobs and sectors where they are looking to recruit.

“But we could address this and actually get the rebalancing we need when it comes to migration by leaving Europe, being in control of our borders and being very clear about the type of skilled people we want to come and work in the UK.”

Related articles

The Office for Budget Responsibility has repeatedly made the link between growth and continuing levels of net migration.

We cannot sustain the number of people coming to the UK from the EU

Priti Patel, Employment Minister

Last month it renewed its findings that net migration has a positive impact on the British economy and claimed that a “high level” of net migration of 265,000 a year would fuel growth by £4.5bn by 2019-20 and £6bn by 2020-2021.

However, Miss Patel believes that only the right kind of migration, which relies on Britain being able to fill its high-skilled vacancies with candidates from outside the EU, will help the country maximise its growth potential.

The minister, who is effectively giving her endorsement to an Australian-style points-based immigration system, now wants Brexit to pave the way for a rebalancing of the economy.

“We cannot sustain the number of people coming to the UK from the EU,” she said. “Figures show that something like 1.6 million people have settled in Britain from the EU in the past nine years.

The pros and cons of Brexit

The pros and cons of Brexit.

“That is effectively the population of Birmingham and Manchester combined. We certainly can’t sustain that, while at the same time they are not actually being productive and not filling those vacancies we have in our labour market, which are highly-skilled.

“There is this entire rebalancing required that means we have to stop those people coming in from the EU and make sure that we future-proof our economy by equipping our own population with the tools that they need for the future of the labour market, while at the same time making sure we get the people from the right parts of the world that can contribute to our economy in a productive way.”

Miss Patel claimed that losing the “shackles of the EU” would allow Britain to deal with regulations holding the country back – and damaging the steel industry.

Urging the Government to engage with the European Commission to help save jobs at the Port Talbot steelworks, Miss Patel said: “I think the right focus for this Government is to look at what they can do – and we are doing this right now in terms of putting the community first and looking for potential buyers.

GETTY

There has repeatedly been a link between growth and continuing levels of net migration

"But I don’t think we should lose sight of the fact there are some hurdles here which will require us to engage with the EU – state aid rules being the obvious one.

“Changes to pension funds wanting to be made for a potential buyer – these are aspects that will obviously involve discussion with the EU. Governments make choices and decisions when it comes to industries that are struggling.

"I take the view the Government is doing everything it possibly can now to put that community first. But there are big barriers that have to be overcome and one of those is the EU and state aid rules.”